9" Model A Motor Location

Hello and thank you in advance. I realize that this is probably a very dumb question, but thought I'd ask anyway.

While looking at the Baldor (replacement) motor on my little 9", I couldn't help but notice what a mess it was:
wood dust in the fan intake and oil slung all over it. And additionally, how much room it takes up between the bed
and motor mount. I DO realize that I could make a motor shield to cover it.

But with that being said, has anyone tried to mount the motor on the backside of the mounting frame? I realize that the
motor weight aids with forward tilt to disengage drive belt, but is this forward weight necessary? I'm just wondering if
anyone has moved the motor to allow more room and keep cleanup easier. Although the motor is not all that noisey, there
is a pretty good hum coming off of it. I rarely change the position of the motor drive belt on the pulleys. I do realize I'd
need a smaller belt. But doing this would put the motor electrical box out of the way as well as the ugly armored cable,
which I plan to get rid of.

There's probably a good reason NOT to do this, but I don't know why. (I am currently doing a maintenance cleanup and paint
job, and plan to relocate the drum switch down to the front of the machine).

Thank for input!

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Couple of suggestions for you:

You could theoretically mount the motor on the back side of the countershaft bracket except that there's no mounting surface back there for the motor so you'd have to build something and figure out how to attach it to the bracket.

If the dust inside the motor is all that bothersome, you could just take a little time to clean out the motor periodically. It's not hard to do.

It might serve your purposes to replace that motor with a TEFC (totally enclosed, fan-cooled) motor or a TENV (totally enclosed non-vented) motor which would solve the dust issue permanently.

Or, you could avoid doing woodworking on the lathe.

I'm not sure I'd get rid of the armor for the motor cables. A little protection for them is a good thing. Dropping something like a chuck on an un-protected cable might give you a light show you won't soon forget!

Thanks for your reply and ideas.
First, as you can see there's a square of 1" plywood on the face to allow mounting of
the motor, so it's not original to begin with. I could fairly easily (famous last words)
do the same on the backside of the frame.
Second, I would just as soon not invest in another motor. Baldor is a pretty good brand,
or used to be.
Third, putting the motor's wiring box on the other side negates the need for armoring.
The power wire will run through the inside of the cabinet and exit/enter into the re-located
rotary drum switch. The wire will be totally unseen and protected from "dropped chucks".
Fourth, I'll always turn wood from time to time.

Thanks again for your thoughts!

I have done it with a south bend counter shaft assembly that I used on a different lathe.

You shouldn’t need to use spacers. Loosen the two pivot bolts on the bottom and separate the two pieces. Flip the upper motor shaft assembly around so the motor is on the backside. Remove the countershaft and flip it around so the pulleys step in the right order. Flip the motor and position it so the V belt lines up and drill the mount holes. You will have to drill a hole for the tensioning lever rod somewhere in the casting web.

It’s all doable and I think your counter shaft assembly should support it. Some assemblies had a non symmetric cut out where the three step pulley sits and I don’t think the large step would fit where the cut out was smaller. Yours looks pretty symmetrical.

While you got it all apart might as well play around with how the pieces fit together.

Hope this helps.

Ben

Thanks for the response Ben; yes it does help.
I think I'll probably be opening a can of worms though!

PMc

in the 50 plus years of running the 9" SBL I have, Only once I had to take the ODP motor apart and clean out the steel shavings that had collected in the bell housing. Luckly, the chips did not make it to the windings. Later, the motor was replaced with a DC permanent magnet motor that is totally enclosed. Have not had any issues with it since I installed it 20 years ago. Ken